


colours of a team

by WhiteHeart



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-26 17:04:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13862091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteHeart/pseuds/WhiteHeart
Summary: A quick look in Manchester City's players and the colours that best suit them and their history, before, with and after their time with the blue side of Manchester.





	1. what it takes

The devil is on the details.

It’s easy to read headlines, it’s easy to see a league table and judge a team be it for good or bad, it’s easy to watch a single game and take conclusions, to judge based on opinions that aren’t yours, to see the results but never stop to think about the work behind it. It’s not right, but it’s easy and isn’t it what most people look for in life? It makes it easier to point fingers, to put the blame in someone, maybe it makes it easier to feel better about your team since they are not the only ones struggling. Fans have memory but sometimes they don’t have enough patience to wait before judging or kindness to forgive a mistake, let alone multiple.

It’s quite amusing actually, to see how fast the headlines can change from harsh hateful words to the most highest praise one can think off after one specially good game. The press has no memory, some people will whisper in quiet chuckles, money needs no memory. They will say what the people want to hear, what will make them smile smugly at their friends feeling accomplished of being right in their opinions, the press will work with the moment, a mistake you make will turn all your accomplishments to dust faster than many can blink. They will use your trophies, all that you conquered to attack the players at the slightest hint that they may be falling. It’s not right, but it’s what sells.

But easy isn’t the same as interesting, isn’t the same as inspiring or even intriguing.

The best stories are the ones build on truth, the ones that pay attention to the details, that don’t fail to recognize the human side of a sport that doesn’t last 90 minutes, that is more than what happens in a pitch, in a stadium. Football is a living breathing thing and so are the players, so are the men and women who play the sport for a living, they are human and it does good to remember this fact that looks so simple but is so often overlooked.

They want stories that sell and forget that humanity is so much attractive, so much more interesting. What’s better than a coach used to winning spending his first season without a single silverware, having to handle players that aren’t _ his _ ? Than a team with a identity who few people are willing to recognize let alone respect trying to prove that they are there, that glory is not made of what once was, that trophies are not a measure for history? What’s better than the narrative of players who came to a new team after seasons of glory, looking for new challenges? More soul crushing than the players who had to left, victims of time, sacrificed to make space for a new moment? More uplifting than the story of players who came in shame and doubt looking for a place to build themselves up again?

It’s easy to look at Manchester City at the top of table, to pay attention to the scoresheet and the point gap and completely forget about everything they did in the past. It’s easy but it’s also the greatest shame.


	2. silver

Silver is probably the most sought colour in football. 

Silver means a trophy. It means victory, it means glory, it means a job well done, it means recognition of a season of hard work.

Pep is a man used to seeing silver, used to success both as a player and as a manager. He is the man who won everything with Barcelona in only one season, who snatched individual awards from men with twice more experience than him. The man who created a name for himself, crafted a place under the spotlight not for his failures but for his success, for the fruits of his hard work and intelligence. 

The silver, the trophies are nothing but a consequence.

Football however is a sport of challenges, it’s dynamic in all its aspects, almost a living thing that never stops surprising or reinventing itself.

Football demands creativity, the ability to recognize mistakes and to rethink your view of the sport, sometimes it demands that you reinvent yourself completely. What works in one team will not work in other, what is applauded in one league is harshly criticized in another, a player who flourishes under a coach can be a failure under another, a tatic who works against a team can not work against other.

So when Manchester City called again, when he accepted their offer, Pep knew the challenge that was in front of him, knew that he would have to work to fit his style of football in a league that had it’s own rules, it’s own mentality, in a team that was established by other, who had a identity that had nothing in common with him.

But challenges are what makes life worth living. 

Pep knew that it wouldn’t be the same as going to Bayern even less Barcelona, each club carries a weight with them, each club holds it’s own personality and with Manchester City it wouldn’t be any different, their identity so far away from the ones he used to work with. Pep would have to start slow with the pieces he had been given, would have to see what would work and what wouldn’t in this new league, in this new team, he couldn’t just arrive and build a new team out of nothing he had to start slow.

So he did what he thought he had to do. He send players away even knowing the ultraje he would cause not only with the fans but with the press ( _ Imagine, to think that England’s goalkeeper is not good enough, how arrogant can be one man be? _ ), he did it knowing the consequences, knowing that he would have to carry eventual failures by himself.

And carry them he did.

The season started well enough but before the fans or the press could really warm up to the eccentric new coach unable to hide his emotions on the sideline things started to take a turn to the worse. Draws and defeats started to pill up and slowly but surely the title was out of their grasp and they are left fighting for a top 4 spot, the other competitions are all lost in a point or another and frustration rose as people started to point fingers to the players of course but mostly to him.

Football is not kind to anyone, but especially not to managers.

A single season without silverware and suddenly his past achievements are downplayed ( _ With Messi it’s easier…. In a league of only one team it’s easier… _ ), his style of play questionated and judged, his players criticized with a vengeance, people started to ask for his sacking after only one season, bitter over decisions they couldn’t understand, hungry for results that didn’t came.

But Manchester City trusted him and when Pep went to them with a list of name they put faith in his choices even if the rest of the world was more judging. Time is not kind to players and Pep did what he thought best for the club, he let go of older players and brought new younger faces to build a team able to fight for all competitions, a team with his identity.

He was questioned, of course he was, people offended by the money paid, shocked by some of the names he insisted on signing but Pep knew what he was doing, knew what he wanted from his players and had looked carefully for those who could fill those positions, football doesn’t happen solely on the pitch, it takes strategy and preparation.

And this time the universe smiled to  _ them  _ (Not for  _ him _ , never for him alone).

Because they are doing exactly what people expect on his first season, they are fighting for trophies, they are playing a football so beautiful it’s a art, the players are giving their everything on the pitch and the results are finally coming. 

The press is all over them now, praising his players, praising him and the club as if the last season had never happened. It’s quite funny for the sheer hypocrisy.

And Pep learned too. He learned about english football of course but he also learned about his players. He learned to read them, to bring the best out of them, and to care for them and for their struggles. Sometimes a coach need to do what others wouldn’t, to defend the players even if his words will fall on deaf ears, to ask for protection for them ( _ How many injuries? How many players leaving the field in pain before cards start to being show? Pep can’t do anything other than to talk about it and goddamn if it’s not frustrating _ ) game after game, if he is not going to do those things then who will? If a coach doesn’t believe in a player who will? If he doesn’t speak out against certain things who will?

They are doing their best, giving their everything and the results are there, they are showing how their hard work is finally giving fruits.

And the trophies…. Well the trophies maybe will come, maybe they wouldn’t. Who can possible know with football? Weirder things already happened.

Pep can only work hard and, well, hope and pray for the best.

**Author's Note:**

> I told myself i would not in fact write anything else for the football fandom. I'm a filthy liar with no self control.  
> This is half a self indulgent piece, half rambling i wrote instead of sleeping but it turned out nice? i kinda of liked the final result, even if i have yet to finish writing it. My original plan was to post a chapter a day but well i failed a bit at it already.  
> Also a good summary? I don't know her.


End file.
